Still Fighting It
by shannanagin
Summary: Jeff and Annie clean up after the food fight. Spoilers through 1.22


Annie was almost positive she had egg salad in her ear. And possibly, spaghetti in her shoe. Or something equally squishy. She grimaced and flicked a piece of lettuce off her elbow.

All the bathrooms on campus were jammed full of students trying to wash off remnants off the food fight and she wasn't in the mood to fight and elbow her way to a sink and mirror. Girls could be vicious when it came to bathroom space.

This is why she currently found herself lurking outside the Administrative Office - egg salad in her ear, spaghetti in her shoe, and eww, was that creamed corn in her hair?

And food fights were so supposedly awesome _why_?

She heard footsteps in the office and flattened herself against the wall as the Dean's administrative assistant walked out and shut the door behind her. Annie waited for the woman to round the corner before inching toward the door and trying the handle. Ha! It opened. She slipped in quietly and breathed a sigh of relief.

The last time she had been in here with Shirley she had noticed that the Dean had his own private bathroom in his office. And since Dean Pelton was currently down at the cafeteria in hysterics over the fact that the ceiling was coated with pizza sauce and mustard and that an entire days worth of food had been destroyed over the course of ten minutes… well, that meant that his bathroom was free. And Annie intended on taking full advantage of this.

She opened the bathroom door and almost screamed at the sight of someone standing there in front of the sink.

"What the-" Jeff spun around as Annie held a hand to her heart and sagged into the door frame.

"You scared me," she muttered.

"I scared _you_? I thought you were the Dean."

"What are you doing here?"

Jeff gave her a once over, "Same reason you are I would guess. This is the only private bathroom on campus."

"And you've actually done research on this?"

"Extensively." Jeff turned back toward the mirror and Annie turned to leave before he called out, "We can share."

It was then Annie noticed that Jeff seemed to have taken off his shirt. Which meant of course that he was shirtless. Without his shirt on. Again. In front of her. _Dammit. _

What right did he even have to have those kinds of arms?

But she squared her shoulders and joined him at the sink. It was either this or walk around covered in food all day. Lesser of two evils.

(_Lesser of two evils._ _Evil, evil is bad; sin is bad, sin, sin. _Oh Annie, stop thinking about sin while you're standing in close quarters with a shirtless Jeff Winger. Shirtless. Arms. _Oh shut up_.)

They worked quietly for a few minutes, taking turns at the sink. Once she was satisfied that all the food had been wiped off her arms and legs Annie bent down low to splash some water through her hair and comb the mess out with her fingers. When she looked up she noticed Jeff watching her in the mirror. She flushed.

"What?"

He shook his head, "Nothing."

Annie suddenly felt awkward as she stepped back and shook out her hair, but he continued. "You know, sometimes I think you're actually the most mature one here.

She was confused. "What?"

"Annie, Britta and I just engaged in what could technically be called a "duh-off" with a bunch of _high school_ students." His eyes widened for emphasis, "_High school_."

She titled her head to the side, "Well, they _were_ pretty obnoxious," she said slowly.

Jeff shook his head, "No. Say it. I can handle the truth."

Annie wasn't completely positive that he could. "It probably _would _have been better if you had just ignored them."

He was quiet, his forehead creased in thought.

On instinct she almost reached out to touch his shoulder, but grasped the porcelain of the sink instead. Their eyes met in the reflection of the mirror.

"Jeff, I pepper sprayed myself in the face a few weeks ago. And slammed your head into a table. Pierce pantsed a grown woman. Troy _literally_ thinks the term is '_escape_ goat.' Trust me, I think we _all _have a little growing up to do."

A muscle twitched in his jaw. "A year ago I was a lawyer. I _was_ a grown up. And the more time I spend here, the… this place is making me stupid."

Annie smiled, "Maybe."

He threw his hands up in the air with an exasperated sigh.

"But." She glanced into the sink, skimming her fingers through the water, "I kind of like this Jeff better.

Jeff raised an eyebrow, "So my absolutely insane behavior lately makes me more _likable_?"

Images of naked pool and Pottery class filled her mind. She smiled and shrugged, "More human."

He watched as she let the tap water pool in her palm, opening and closing her hand to let the water slide through her fingertips. Over and over.

_Wasteful. There was a drought or something. Maybe. It didn't matter._

Jeff cleared his throat and she pulled her hand from away from the faucet, shaking it dry behind her.

"Thanks Annie."

She shrugged.

"I'll say it again. Definitely the smartest."

"I thought you said I was the most mature."

"That too."

It wasn't necessarily that she had never received compliments like this before. She'd had friends in the past, she'd been flattered and praised and even probably liked at some point but lately was as if she was soaking in a perpetual warm pool of happiness, surrounded be people who cared. _Cared._

And when J_eff _said these things and he looked at her like _that_ – something she could feel in her toes – she couldn't help but want to laugh and cry and run to find all the people she went to high school with so she could yell, "See! Everything's okay!"

Maybe one day it would all just feel normal.

Jeff had resumed trying to scrape off some sort of greenish substance from his shirt and Annie hovered, unsure, behind him, not really wanting to leave yet.

"You have mashed potatoes in your hair."

He scowled at the mirror. "Yeah." Bending low, he tried to splash water over his head but he was too tall and the sink was too low and water just kept pouring over the side of the sink and puddling onto the tiled floor.

"Here, let me." Annie moved next to him, rested her hand lightly on the back of his neck, and started scooping handfuls of warm water over his hair. Jeff shifted, dropped his hand back down to the edge of the sink next to where Annie was leaning. His fingers pressed up against her hip.

It took a moment and one deep breath before she could resume what she was doing. He didn't move his hand.

Annie ran her nails gently along his scalp to get out all the bits of food, trying to ignore the way he almost tensed and then relaxed into her touch when her fingers combed slowly through his hair.

She considered running her hand lower, down his back, tracing over the muscles at his shoulders. Somehow, she didn't think he'd mind.

_There's nothing stopping you._

Instead, she turned the faucet off and handed him his shirt, backed up slightly as he finally stood.

Droplets of water rolled down the sides of his face, dripping onto his shoulders and sliding down…

_Seriously._

He smiled though, a little side-half-turned smile, a little… And Annie's heart skipped a beat so loudly that it seemed to echo around the small space.

"You know –" He started.

And then the door opened.

They both started in surprise and turned to see the Dean with his hands on his hips and head titled to the side.

"Woah, what is going on _here_?" His eyebrows raised appraisingly as he scanned up and down Jeff's body.

Annie's mouth opened and closed wordlessly as Jeff quickly threw his shirt back on over his head "We were just trying to – "

The Dean held up his hand, "No need to explain Mr. Winger. I'm fully aware of what you were _trying _to do. Look, it's not necessarily that I have a problem with these kinds of things happening in my bathroom." Annie's eyes widened. "But if people found out that Number 2 and Number 4 were engaging in such activities on my _watch_," the Dean raised his eyebrows suggestively at the word _watch_, "Then it could create a _huge _liability for me."

"Wha-" Annie shook her head in confusion, "Number two and –"

Jeff grabbed her hand and steered her toward the office door, "Thank you Dean. We will keep that in mind. Our apologies." And with that he shut the door behind him and pulled Annie into the hallway, walking quickly.

"Jeff, what did he mean by Number 2 and Number 4?"

"What? Oh. Huh. Who knows? The Dean's a complicated guy Annie."

She watched him suspiciously, "You don't really think that _he_ thinks that we…?"

Jeff finally stopped then and looked down at her. She realized that he was essentially still holding her hand – _holding her hand_ – walking down the hallway holding her _hand._ He let go.

"No. Of course not."

"Because that would be…"

As Jeff caught her eye she noticed something there that hadn't been a few months ago. Something playful? Curious? She was a little intrigued. A little scared.

He gave her a smile, "Ridiculous?"

She held the look for a moment and then smiled back, "Totally."

_Completely. Utterly. Unequivocally._

"I should..." He nodded his head down the hallway.

"No, yeah, me too. I have to..."

And queue the inevitable awkwardness.

Annie turned quickly to avoid any head patting. She almost made it to the end of the hall when she stopped and pivoted on her heel. Jeff was still standing in the same spot.

"Maybe not," she called back to him.

"What?"

"Maybe not. Completely ridiculous." Her body flooded with a warm, _oh God, oh God, I can't take that back, but I'm sort of proud of it, but oh God_, wave of emotions.

There was a split second when she was afraid he was going to bolt away in fear. But then his lips parted slightly. He nodded, head dipped low.

"Maybe not."

_Okay then. _

"Okay."

Annie spent the rest of the day being assaulted with images of what could have happened if the Dean hadn't shown up when he did. Of Jeff with water dripping down his chest.

She mentally tossed away her own college bucket list. It didn't really seem to matter anymore. Everything good that was happening just seemed to be happening of it's own accord, little moments that just randomly scattered throughout any given day. And that was good enough for now.


End file.
